By Matt Hoisch
Much of Southwest Colorado is in exceptional drought. Image from US Drought Monitor.
Dave Alexander says when it comes to water, it’s a big gamble. And this year the dealer isn’t giving out a good starting hand.
“It’s kind of a ‘wait and see,’” he explains. “But right now it’s not looking good.”
Alexander is a rancher in Norwood. His grandfather started the ranch in the 1920s, and he started working on it when he was a teenager. “Every day I could, I put in almost a full day on the ranch,” he says.
Originally they raised sheep but now it’s cattle—about 450 a year. But this year is presenting challenges.
According to the US Drought Monitor, Southwest Colorado is in the highest level of drought, known as “exceptional drought.” For ranchers like Alexander, that’s meant adapting. For instance, usually he raises enough hay for his cattle. But this year, he’s had to buy all of the hay.
“It was cold and kind of dry,” he explains. “And we didn’t have as much feed. And the year before was a drought, and we didn’t have a lot of feed left over from the fall before. So it all adds up. All makes a difference.”
Alexander says there have been periods of on-and-off drought every few years in the past, but he also acknowledges this feels different.
“It seems like it’s a little worse this last period than what it usually is,” he notes. “But—I don’t know. I just don’t know. I’m hoping it’ll come back and do a lot better, but we’re just kind of in a pattern right now where we’re not getting a lot of snowfall.”
Barclay Daranyi is trying to be a bit more proactive. She’s a second generation farmer who’s run Indian Ridge Farm in Norwood with her husband, Tony, for the last two decades. She says they’ve decided to step back from some of their day-to-day farming for what they’re calling a “reset year” to figure out a couple of long-term questions about the 125 acre farm. Water is part of it.
“What is our long-term strategy if this is just the beginning of a larger drought cycle for our region?” Daranyi says. “And I don’t have the answers for that. Tony and I both don’t have the answers for that. But that’s why we want to take the time to really look at our water usage.”
Daranyi says they want to look into whether there are ways to use their water more wisely, like collaborating with their neighbors and community more or even possibly growing different crops. They’re taking the reset year, she says, in part, because they’ve noticed the region is getting drier. Their first year farming in 2001, she explains, there was a big drought and people in the area said it was the worst they’d seen in a century. But then “soon after that we had another drought,” she says. “You know, we had another drought in 2018 that was a very bad year. And here we go again. Last year was a bad year. So we’re seeing what might have been a hundred year drought now being sort of a ten year cycle.”
That experience matches up with scientific projections of climate change. One paper published last year in the journal Science, for instance, says warming caused by man-made greenhouse gasses has pushed what would have been an otherwise moderate drought in the southwestern US toward a trajectory comparable to the worst megadrought in the region since 800 CE.
The local government is also paying attention. Candy Meehan is Norwood’s Mayor Pro Tem.
“Our economy down here is fragile,” she explains. “It is very fragile. And sustainability comes from consistency. Not losing our big farmers, our big ranchers. Not even losing the small ones. So we’re going to have to just come at this with a smarter perspective.”
Meehan is trying to organize more education about smarter water use. There’s also action on the supply front. Tim Lippert is the Town’s Public Works Director. He says they’re in a good place when it comes to the town’s water system. But the region is also considering other sources to deal with future growth.
The Norwood Water Commission handles potable water for the area. They’re looking at developing conditional water rights they have on the San Miguel River. If they can build the needed infrastructure, Lippert says that’s projected to help meet growth needs for the next 20 years. But, he also notes their growth forecasts are just a guess and things could play out differently.
But one thing becoming more certain is that drier years could be the new normal.
“I think the wet years are more the anomaly now,” says San Miguel County Commissioner Kris Holstrom. She represents the west part of the county, which includes Norwood. She’s a part of a group pushing for creative, cooperative solutions to the region’s water challenges. She’s quick to note water discussions haven’t always gone that way and points to a saying from the old west: “Whiskey’s for drinking. Water’s for fighting.”
Time will tell whether that old west mentality is a thing of the past.